Gucci to open 22 more Japan stores in 2001
In a rare vote of confidence in the Japanese economy, the Italian leather and luxury goods house, Gucci Group, announced last week that it is to open 22 new stores in Japan over the next twelve months.
Speaking at a news conference in Japan, the president and chief executive of Gucci, Domenico de Sole, said the investment was being made on the back of a dramatic rise in the company’s Japanese sales.
"When I first came to Japan in 1994, we had very few stores, very little volume, and all of the stores were falling apart, so it has been a great success story for us in Japan," de Sole said.
Last year, Japanese sales earned Gucci Group $406 million - 18% of the company’s total revenue and a massive increase on the $30 million posted in the business year to January 1995.
De Sole said all the new stores would be operational by January 22, bringing its total in Japan to 75, but declined to say what the breakdown between the different Gucci group brands would be. Retail sales of Gucci group’s core Gucci brand products alone jumped 38 percent last year.
De Sole also repeated last month’s prediction of a 10% increase in sales world-wide next year for the Gucci brand, despite the depressed U.S. and Japanese economies.
